The widespread admission of foreign students into American institutions of higher learning has created “a national security issue that we need to deal with,” according to a congressional expert on China as a Democrat-appointed judge overturned the Trump administration’s attempt to crack down on the practice.

U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs, an Obama appointee, extended a temporary restraining order against the Trump administration’s attempts to stop Harvard University from enrolling any future international students, claiming that foreign students had created an unsafe environment for U.S. citizens on campus and threatened the nation with espionage.

The administration slammed the decision. “The president’s authority to prevent foreign nationals from entering the country is one of his greatest and highest authorities. He’s operating at the apex of executive power when he does so. Congress, likewise, has codified and cemented that authority by giving the Department of Homeland Security and the Secretary of State plenary authority to reject the entry of foreign nationals into this country, which is what makes that Harvard ruling from this crazy judge so obscene,” Stephen Miller told “The Ingraham Angle” on Thursday. “Harvard defied multiple DHS subpoenas for information about its foreign students and about law-breaking and national security threats on campus.”

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the Trump administration will begin to “aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.” That came one day after he suspended interviews for new incoming foreign students. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem previously banned Harvard from hosting foreign students. The Trump administration has argued the Ivy League institution has not sufficiently combated anti-Semitism on campus, creating an unsafe environment for its Jewish student population.

Covert Chinese Communist spies have been “infiltrating our communities through quiet means, including through our educational institutions, having students come over here on visas,” Rep. Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas) told “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” Thursday. In time, the CCP’s targets — which include “some of our top research institutions in the country, many of whom are engaged in research that impacts national security matters” — “become reliant upon and dependent upon money and students coming from China” for funding.

Upon the student-spies’ graduation, CCP agents end up “taking our innovation and our technology out of our universities and back to China,” added Moran, a member of the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party. “We’re seeing the results” as “technology in China is advancing as quickly, or more quickly in a lot of areas, than here in the United States. And it’s because they’re using our educational institutions to do a lot of that.”

The U.S. currently enrolls a total of 277,398 students from China, accounting for one in four international students and making it the second largest source of foreign students. India is the largest with 331,602, followed by China, South Korea (43,149), Canada (28,998), and Taiwan (23,157). 

Reportedly among the CCP’s student delegation is Xi Jinping’s daughter, Xi Mingze.

Last month, Moran’s committee detailed Harvard’s long history of collusion with the CCP, including research partnerships with three universities linked to the Chinese military: Tsinghua, Zhejiang, and Huazhong Universities.

“No American university or college should be assisting the CCP in expanding its influence, oppressing American citizens, or undermining U.S. national security,” said Chairman Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.). “Unfortunately, we have found several instances in which Harvard University aided and even collaborated with the CCP — including helping Chinese researchers on military projects funded by the Iranian government. This is unacceptable and President [Alan] Garber needs to provide answers to Congress for this colossal failure.”

Garber instead trolled the administration at graduation exercises last week, saluting students from “around the world” to sustained applause.

An estimated 200 U.S. colleges had contracts with Chinese businesses, including some owned by the Chinese Communist Party, worth $2.32 billion between 2012 and 2024.

Moran noted that the House Committee on Education and the Workforce discovered during hearings last session that “many” universities “did not report these contracts, the monies that they got from foreign entities of concern” to the federal government, as required by law. “Basically, they would just apologize, and then they would continue to either underreport or not report at all.”

President Trump has announced he wishes to cancel all remaining federal contacts with Harvard, worth approximately $100 million, according to The New York Times.

“There needs to be some accountability to say, ‘If you’re not transparent about the money you’re getting from any foreign entity, then we’re going to stop the flow of any federal monies to your college or university,” Moran concluded.